As spectators shivered in the stands, Mario Burke defied the conditions and ran an almost perfect race to win the Under-17 Boys’ 100 metres, late Saturday night, on Day 1 of the Louis Lynch Championships at the National Stadium.
Running in lane four alongside Tamal Atwell who was drawn in five, Burke built on a great start.
He stayed in the drive phase longer than Atwell, and with 40 metres to go, accelerated away from Atwell (11.07) and the rest of the field to win in a CARIFTA Games-qualifying 10.75 seconds.
It was a new personal best for the HPP athlete who has been steadily lowering his times this season. Starting with a best of 10.99, he has improved to 10.90 and 10.88 in the semi-finals.
“Conditions were very good,” said Burke, who wasn’t cold at all. “I felt I was going to make the time, so I went out there and did it.
“I got a good start in the semis, went out, relaxed and came in, but I didn’t run all out.”
Burke just missed the 10.70 seconds qualifying mark for the Central American and Caribbean Juniors and he will be working on lowering his time even further to reach that standard.
Justin Gooding took the men’s race in 10.76 seconds, Deon Hope second in 10.79 after Levi Cadogan was disqualified, falling out of the blocks from the set position.
Katrina Weir, with 11.98 seconds, won the women’s race, and Leah Barker the girls’ event with 12.43.
Burke was the lone qualifier in the evening session, joining hurdler Shakera Hall who met the standard in the Under-20 Girls’ 100m hurdles earlier with a time of 14.28 seconds.
Several athletes came very close, including Ramarco Thompson of Freedom Striders with 49.40 seconds in the Under-17 Boys’ 400 metres, just shy of the 49 seconds flat target.
A bit too conservative in the first half, he left too much to do in the second 200m, pulling along Pacers’ Ariko Small (49.80).
In one of the most exciting races of the night, Wibisco Stars’ John Haynes ran beautifully to overtake his former Foundation schoolmates Shaquille Alleyne (48.65) and Nikolai Gall (48.17), both of Freedom Striders. Haynes came out of the final turn and pulled away from Gall to win in 47.96, just outside the 47.9 target.
Jerrad Mason didn’t run the final after a slight glute strain sustained in the semi-final.
Also missing out was Rising Stars’ Pius Emilien who clocked 4 minutes, 17.25 seconds in the Under-17 Boys’ 1 500m. He needs to strip four seconds off that time.
Pacers’ Charles Greaves was three centimetres shy of the Under-20 Boys’ long jump mark with 7.27m, and his clubmate Kadeem Norville, if he can get his run-up right, can certainly improve from 6.24 to meet the required 6.65 for the Under-17 division.
There was nothing else to shout about in the field.
Other winners on the night were Foundation’s Tia-Adana Belle (57.65) and Ariel Jackson (56.95) of Freedom Striders in the girls’ and women’s 400 metres, respectively.
Cindy Forde won the 1 500m in 5:02.42, and Pacers’ Jerome Blackett the men’s race in 4:17.61.
Among the Under-15s, Akilah Worrell (13.05) and Michael Belgrave (12.07) won the 100s, Alana Ince took the 400m (59.95) and 75m hurdles (12.14) and Jamal Atherley the 80m hurdles (13.66).
A minute’s silence was observed at the start of the meet in memory of St Clair Cox, coach of the Barbados Olympic team to the 1988 Games in Seoul, Korea.
